2021 Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class

[MUSIC PLAYING] CALVIN KIM: The car behind me is the all new Mercedes Benz GLS 450. It's Mercedes Benz's top-dog three-row SUV. So Mercedes Benz has a lot of SUVs. And they've launched a couple of new ones recently, like the GLE and the G-Wagen Where does the GLS fit amongst those two? Well, the G-Wagen is the off-roadable one. It's the style one. The GLE is the practical one. It's more fuel-efficient. It's a little bit smaller, but it has all the features. The GLS has the size and the features all rolled into one. It's a three-row full size, and what that means for Mercedes is full-grown adults can fit in that back row. It's got MBUX, their all-new award-winning infotainment system. It's got EQ boost, which is some power adding crazy thing. It's got 48-volt suspension, because who knew you could have electric suspension? I can't wait to see how all this stuff works, especially the off-road mode. But before we get into it, make sure to subscribe to Edmunds's YouTube channel, and check us out on Edmunds.com. We're in the GLS 450 right now. That means it's got a 3-liter inline-six engine that's turbocharged. Nothing too crazy here, but Mercedes is using this technology called EQ boost. And what that is it uses the 48-volt system to also boost up the engine. Engine-wise, there's two choices. You can get a V8 or an inline-six. And normally you'd think, for a car this big, you'd want the V8. But actually, there's some benefits to the inline-six. Obviously, you get a little bit more fuel economy. And because of the EQ boost system, the 48-volt integrated starter generator, it has a seamless auto start-stop, and when you get on the throttle, it gives you a little bit of electric boost along with the turbo. The engine feels a lot spritelier and a lot torquier than you'd think. And frankly, I don't know if you'd really need the V8. Both the inline-six and V8 are all-wheel drive and have a nine-speed automatic transmission with flappy paddle shifters. That's really nice when you're going on a long downhill, like we are now. So you can kind of hold the gear, and that way, you're not riding the brakes as much. The all-wheel drive system is adaptive, meaning you can send power to the front and rear as you see fit. It's all stuff you'd don't have to worry about. The computers take care of all that for you. Frankly, you can just hop in this thing, leave it all on auto and comfort mode, and never notice a thing. But for the car enthusiast that knows how to push the right buttons, there is a ton of a just ability for literally everything. There's some hand-me-down technology from the GLE, and frankly, there's nothing wrong with that. One of the big ones is the 48-volt suspension system. Here in the GLS, its much bigger weight shows off the capabilities, I think, a little bit better. One of the advantages to this system is curve control. It is crazy. It pumps up the outside shocks when it knows you're in a corner, and actually leaves the whole car into the turn. If you're seeing what I'm seeing, it looks like you're flying in a plane or on a motorcycle. It's absolutely surreal to experience initially, but you get used to it. And frankly, you wonder how you drove a car without it. This is the only way to fly. The Mercedes engineers are very specific in mentioning that this new GLS is slipperyer through the air than the old GLS. Now, granted, they're both big cars, but the benefit for having this low air resistance isn't so much in high-speed highway driving, it's in wind noise. And frankly, it's a library in here. Mercedes calls the GLS the S-class of SUVs, and all that might be stretching it a little bit-- after all, there's no fiber optic roof here-- it comes pretty close. And in fact, out of all of the other three-row SUVs on the market, yeah, I think this might take the crown for luxury. It's certainly the benchmark, from my perspective. MBUX is a full-feature infotainment system that controls just about every aspect of the GLS. It relies on voice, haptic touchpad, and a touch screen to control all the functions. With MBUX, you control the navigation, the infotainment, the climate control, seat massaging-- everything related to the operation of the vehicle. Maybe I'd like to get a little bit of a back rub. Hey, Mercedes. SPEAKER 1: How may I help you? CALVIN KIM: Turn on my seat massager. SPEAKER 1: I'm switching on massage. CALVIN KIM: That's luxury. One of the good things about having the infotainment system be completely integrated into the car is the fact that you can set up different modes or presets on how you operate the car. Mercedes calls them themes. For example, in this car, we have an off-road mode. And simply by scrolling through all the different themes, we can go to the adventure theme, and it's right now switching the car to off-road mode. I'm getting a different display in the dash that shows my pitch and roll. And when I slow down, the cameras will turn on to show me the surroundings, so I don't inadvertently run over a sharp pointy rock. Conversely, when I'm ready to get back on the highway, I can just switch my theme to, let's say, the sport plus experience. Nice. So what this display's showing you is the active ride control in action. There's a camera overhead that's looking down at the road surface and scanning it, and seeing where the undulations are. And it's preemptively adjusting the active part of the suspension. Other active body control systems have an artificial feeling that kind of messes up with your [INAUDIBLE] and your ear, but on the GLS, it's absolutely seamless. It just feels like this is the way it's supposed to be. There's a lot going for the GLS, but it's not perfect. You either love MBUX or you hate it. A lot of us love it because it's easy and we understand that there is a lot of technology behind the scenes that MBUX has made very simple. Now, if you don't like technology, you're going to have a problem with it. The interior of the GLS follows suit with the rest of the Mercedes Benz product lineup. In fact, a lot of the controls will seem familiar to anyone that's seen any of the newer cars. And that's a good thing. The steering wheel has a lot of controls on it. And it looks daunting at first, but it's actually very logically laid out. Cruise control is on one side, and the audio and phone stuff is on the other. But we particularly like how the climate control is all hardware-based. Now, there is a common control menu for the more advanced functions, but all of your general controls that you'll use on an everyday basis fall right to hand. Another good thing about the GLS is a superfluous amount of US ports. Mercedes says there are 11, but you're going to need USB-C cables, because that's the only thing inside the car. And there's these cool little foam-joggy dial things that used to swipe and maneuver to navigate the different menus. Overall build quality on the GLS is excellent. The story's is the same back here in the second row. It's very roomy, meant for full-size adults. You get your own climate control system controls, two USB jacks, and 1 10 jack. Even in the bench configuration, the second row seats are fully adjustable, and they have heating, as well. This particular seat also has the backrest fold down functionality of 40, 20, and 40. And of course, you don't have to lift a finger to do that. Just a flick of a switch unlocks the control and takes care of your loading issues. But here in the back row is where the big news is. Mercedes Benz went on record saying a 6 foot 4 adult male could fit back here. I'm sure they could. I'm 6' foot tall exactly, and I have just enough knee room, and of course, a ton of headroom. And the seats themselves are very comfortable. I think the one odd thing about it though is this headrest. Normally it's in the down position for visibility, but when it's in the full up position, it's a little bit long, and it gets into my shoulder blades a little bit. I guess it's good if you have a little itch back there. But one of the cool touches that Mercedes put in is they made sure that the third row passenger can get in and out all by themselves. Just of course, one touch of a button and voila. Sure, the insides are nice, the seats are comfy, but true luxury means not having to fiddle with knobs and levers to recline the seats. So Mercedes Benz gives us the benefit of having one-touch fold down for all two rows. [MUSIC PLAYING] For those of you with sharp eyes, you'll notice I'm in a different car. And that's right. I'm in the GLS 580. And it's got a twin turbo charged V8, but it too has the EQ system so that you have no turbo lag and a ton of torque. Even sharper eyes also notice it's kind of bumpy. That's because we're on a dirt road. We're here to test the off-road capability of the GLS. If you get the off-road package, you get a low range, you get underbody protection, and you get additional software stability control maps. What that means is you can handle off-roading a lot better than you'd think. Now, normally, when most people think of three-row SUVs, they think family-mobile. If anything, this is the one that the adventuresome person should buy. In fact, just about every truck and SUV that has a low range, when you engage it, it locks the center differential, which makes doing take turns nearly impossible. GLS also does something a little bit smarter. It actually unlocks the center differential and yet still has enough clapping force to make sure there's power going to all four wheels. What that means to you, as the driver and passengers-- it's just a lot more comfortable ride. There's no brakes locking up. There's no odd adverse reactions. The car just simply climbs up the corner. So now, we're doing a lot of rutted out driving, and there's a stream going down the path. This kind of train is what separates the real off-roadable SUVs from the crossovers. And of course, the GLS has no problems doing any of this because they factored all of this into it. All these systems allow a person that really likes to go off-roading and really likes to explore new unique places the ability to do it without compromising the luxury ride Monday through Friday. So you can wear your business suit to work, and then where you're off-roading suit on the weekends. [MUSIC PLAYING] Who is the GLS for? I think, for certain people, it will absolutely be just a regular SUV. But for the creative-minded, the adventuresome, the GLS presents a lot more functionality, a lot more features than I think a lot of people are going to give it credit for. Yeah, there are other SUVs that are a little bit more off-roadable-- the Land Cruiser and the Range Rover immediately spring to mind-- but none of them feature the GLS's massive interior space, and the MBUX infotainment system, the comfort, the quietness, and of course, the EABC, the Electronic Active Body Control system that makes the ride truly like a magic carpet. Yeah, it doesn't have the je ne sais quoi of the S-class's ultimate luxury, but this thing can go off road, man. S-class can't do that. Do you like off-roading? Do you like luxury cars? If you want to see more videos like this, be sure to subscribe to Edmunds.com. [MUSIC PLAYING]